Here's my mini review of the Nexus 4. I've played around with it since Wednesday now.
I'm basically comparing this phone to my iPhone 3GS and iOS5 because that was my previous phone for three years as well as my Nexus 7. Obviously there are going to be improvements over the 3GS.
Feel
The Nexus 4 feels weighty and solid in your hand. It's pretty slim from what I am used to in the 3GS.
There is sort of a rubberized band around the device that works well for staying in your hand and. If this thing was all glass or plastic, I would probably drop it a lot.
Buttons are solid, power is on the right, and the volume rocker is on the left. That is it for buttons on the phone.
There is a chrome bezel around the frame, it looks like it is plastic, but I can't tell for sure. It is not large enough to be worried about, it doesn't take anything away from the feel of the phone.
The gorilla glass on the front and back is amazing. As you have heard, the glass on the front is curved at the edges. You can really feel this and it is freaking cool. It does allow your thumb to slide from the very edge of the device to the center.
Looks
This phone is beautiful. It is large, curvy and reflective. It's actually difficult to take pictures of because everything reflects off its glass front and back. The display is large and gorgeous and vivid.
I let a friend who doesn't know anything about this phone play with it and her reaction when she first picked it up was "Oh wow!"
The backing is very matrix like and very cool in the correct light. Sometimes it looks black and sometimes it looks like crystal. It kind of reminds me of those old 3d cards where you move the card and the picture moves.
Sound
I use the speaker on my phones in the morning usually to listen to the news. The speaker is on the back of the phone. Therefore, if you are going to use the speaker like this, you have to place the phone face down. On the iPhone, the speaker was on the bottom so it didn't matter which way you placed it.
The sound is a little tinny, exactly what you would expect from a tiny speaker. But it gets the job done.
Physical Function
Charger is on the bottom of the phone. Huge annoyance of mine is the connector is upside down from the Nexus 7. I realize they are different manufacturers, and maybe there was a reason for this, but honestly, there should be some consistency between Nexus devices I feel. I have to physically look at each device to figure out which way the plug goes. If they made it the same way in each device, it would be simple.
Same thing with the 3.5mm audio jack. On the Nexus 4 it is on the top. On the Nexus 7 it is on the bottom. There probably wasn't enough room on the bottom of the 4 because of the dock connector, but again, consistency and thought into this would be nice. Pick a layout and go with it. Make them the same so that users who like these products and buy more than one type are familiar with the layout and make it easier for them.
LED light for the camera is bright as hell. Can defiantly use it as a flashlight.
Sim card slot is below the volume rocker and you don't really notice it.
There is an LED indicator at the bottom of the phone to let you know when you have email, voice mail, Facebook notice etc. Email notice is white and Facebook is green for some reason. I heard on the Nexus 10 that Facebook is blue which makes more sense to me. The Facebook notification flashes faster than the email indicator.
Front facing camera at the top right of the device. Very tiny. Very easy to swap around from camera to camera in the app.
Software
Jellybean 4.2 is something i'm sure most of you are familiar with. Or 4.1 at least. There are a few updates from 4.1 but I won't really go over those. I will just say that the operating system is very smooth and easy to use.
I have corporate email on the device and with this, I can not use the lock screen widgets, which is unfortunate. When you install corporate email the device is basically locked down.
One thing about email I don't really like over iOS is that you have to have two separate icons for Gmail and Exchange. It was nice in iOS to combine these to one Mail icon and then select the account.
Widgets are great and really make the Android system shine.
There is plenty of display area here and it much easier on my eyes as compared to an iPhone. I think this is a better form factor for browsing and that sort of thing.
Google Now is pretty cool. Nice voice search feature that works most of the time. You can set Home and Work locations in Google Maps and at the end of the day Google Now will tell you how long your commute home it. I'm sure most of you guys know this, it is the same on the Nexus 7.
Photosphere is very cool. I can see myself using this on hikes and at concerts etc.
Battery Life
You have to charge this phone every night. No way around this and I think it's like this for all smartphones now anyways. I've been using the phone moderately from 6am to 10pm every day and it still has 30%-40% life left. I don't make a ton of calls, so if you are on the phone all day every day, it might be a concern for you. For me, I don't think it will run out after being charget to 100% for the night.
Overall
Overall I am very pleased with the phone. A few drawbacks on the consistency of devices in the Nexus lineup that bug me and unfortunate not to have lock screen widgets work with corporate email, but I can get over those. At $359 this phone is a no brainer. When my Fido contract is up in January, I will be getting the hell out of there with my Nexus 4. No more contracts for me. Keep it up Google and you will develop a strong and loyal base much like Apple has done.
